1969 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1969:

Events

March

• March 18-19 - the Royal Air Force airlifts 300 troops to Anguilla in reponse to the civil unrest that had broken out on the island.

May

• May 4-11 - the Daily Mail Transatlantic Air Race commemorates the 50th anniversary of Alcock and Brown's crossing. It is won by a Royal Navy F-4 Phantom, taking 4 hours 47 minutes.
• May 26 - the US Air Force cancels the AH-56 Cheyenne program, worth $US 900 million.

June

• June 5 - US bombing of North Vietnam recommences, after a seven month ceasefire.
• June 16 - USS PCF 19 is sunk by friendly fire from US aircraft. Five of her crew are killed. HMAS Hobart is also attacked with AIM-7 Sparrow missiles, and two crewmen killed.
• June 17 - USS Edson, USS Boston, USCGC Point Dume and two US patrol boats are attacked by US aircraft.

July

• No. 1 Squadron RAF became the first operational fixed wing VTOL squadron in the world
• July 20 - Neil Armstrong is the first man to walk on the moon.

August

• August 16 - Darryl Greenamayer sets a new piston-engine airspeed record in a heavily modified F8F Bearcat named Conquest I. His record speed of 478 mph (769 km/h) topples a record that had stood for 30 years.
• August 31 - World champion boxer Rocky Marciano perishes when his plane, which he was piloting himself, crashes.

October

• October 20 - Finnair introduces an inertial navigation system on its aircraft, becoming the first airline to dispense with the need for a navigator aboard.

December

• December 18 - the England-Australia Commemorative Air Race is flown in commemoration of the 50th anniversay of the Smith brothers' flight. It is won by W. J. Bright and F. L. Buxton in a Britten-Norman Islander

First flights

February

• February 9 - Boeing 747
• February 12 - Mil Mi V-12

March

• Aero Boero AB-115
• March 2 - BAC-Aérospatiale Concorde

September

• September 15 - Cessna Citation N500CC

Entered service

September

• September 5 - The F-4 Phantom II enters service with Israel's Heyl ha'Avir.

October

• October 2 - BAe Nimrod